[paulgato]

A good plan RedDevil.

I did look into getting after-market HiD's for the dipped beam lights but balked at the cost. How much did yours cost? If I could get them cheapish then yes, that should negate the need to bump up the voltage to the standard H7 headlight bulbs.

I measured the voltage at the H7 terminals today. At 12.2v battery voltage the headlights were getting 11.0v. With the engine on (and alternator on) the battery voltage was 14.5v and the headlights were getting 13.2v. So upgrading the wiring and fitting a relay would bring the headlight voltage up by at least a volt. With alternator off, the headlights would be getting at least 12v, which should help a lot. And a couple of relays will only cost a couple of quid. But, as you say, HiD's have therir own voltage regulators so they would be much better.

Maybe I should look again at the aftermarket HiD's, but it's costing quite a bit to get the engine pre-heater system and the new battery/charger system sorted out, so the HiD's might have to wait.

...

Hmmm... Just been reading about aftermarket HiD's. It seems they sometimes don't work well in a reflector designed for halogens. It also seems it's an illegal modification in the UK, unless you also have self-levelling headlights or self-levelling suspension, ...which I don't. (Well, LED's as tail lights and side lights - anything except interior lights in fact - are technically illegal too, but they're not as obvious, so you would be very unlucky to be challenged on them. Dipped headlights can potentially dazzle other drivers so will attract more legal attention if they're not standard.

I'm not too keen on spending a lot of money on something that may get me into trouble, and may have to be taken off the vehicle anyway to pass an MoT test. HiD's make perfect sense technically, and congratulations on fitting them successfully on your car, but I think I'll file that under 'to be done later, maybe'. More light, that's true, but only an 18w total power saving over the Phillips Eco Vision (35w per bulb rather than 44w per bulb). If I can't see where I'm going, I do have the HiD main beam lights at my disposal.

Oh, and I just read something about UK law saying that HiD's must be configured so that the dipped beams stay on when the HiD's are on, so it looks like my 'main beam on: dipped beam off' mod would be illegal too. Ah well, like I say, I don't use the main beam that much. (An advantage of driving everywhere slowly!)